


Finally Free

by callmemal



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coming Out, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 23:06:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5024119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmemal/pseuds/callmemal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Louis had been forced in the closet for so many years. They fought the ones keeping them in as best as they could, but there was only so much they could do to rebel with their contracts in place. Finally, the contracts ended, and they were free to confirm for the world what most people already knew. They were the music industry's worst-kept secret, but at least now they could make it official.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finally Free

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic here on AO3. I hope you guys like it! I'd love it if you'd post comments/feedback. :)

This was the day they’d been waiting for, praying for, holding on for. Nearly five years of hiding the biggest secret of their lives, and finally, _finally_ , they were getting to tell the world what they’d wanted to from the start. It wasn’t Modest’s fault that it was kept hidden in the beginning; they were 16 and 18 year old boys trying to figure out the transition from being normal lads with regular lives in regular towns to boy band heartthrobs with extraordinary lives being chased all over the globe, so they wanted to make sure the band could make it before they risked anything. After a couple of years, though, they were tired of hiding…but they were at the mercy of a management team who was concerned with money first and their personal feelings long after that.

They fought the rules as best they could, for sure, Louis more than Harry. Louis had always been the wild one, the one who stood up for himself and the band without fear of the ramifications. Even when they saw what Modest could do to make them miserable as punishment, Louis pushed the boundaries every chance he got. He didn’t like Richard or Harry (the founders of Modest Management), he didn’t like being told what to do and how to act, and he certainly didn’t like being forced to act like he wasn’t in love. But that’s what they all got when _The X Factor_ sent them to Modest because of their partnership and these five teenage boys signed contracts they didn’t totally understand. They were just so happy to be starting off where they were; they had no idea the damage they were in for on a personal level.

When Zayn left, they knew it was at least partially because of Modest’s insane demands, even if they never said so to the public. He got tired of being worked like an ox with no time to breathe. Five albums in five years with constant promotional work and touring, plus writing and recording the next album every time they were on tour, it was no surprise to any of them he was exhausted by it all. So that left the other four to go on and finish the On the Road Again Tour and the fifth album on their own. It wasn’t easy; they all knew things drastically changed when Zayn left, and they were the ones who had to deal with the furious management, but they also knew that finishing the fifth album was their light at the end of the tunnel, so they pushed on.

March rolled around, and with that came the end of the fiscal year at Syco and, subsequently, the wave of relief when the last day of their contract hit and Louis, Harry, Liam, and Niall were free from the people who had worked them to the bone for more than five years. At first, they really didn’t know what to do with themselves; they hadn’t had true free time in so long they had forgotten what it felt like. But Louis and Harry knew exactly what was coming next. They were going to finally tell the world what most of their fans had already figured out; they had fallen in love right from the start and had been in a committed relationship since before their first album even hit the shelves.

The first thing they knew for sure was that they had to plan it carefully. They had to do it right. Louis and Harry had waited so long for this; they wanted to do it in a way that felt safe and appropriate and fitting for them. But they also wanted to tell their story. They wanted their fans to know what they were feeling every time they had to avoid the rumors. They wanted to let out the words that had been pounding on their lungs since they first became known, without any question of it being the truth. So print interviews were out. They had seen far too many of their words get twisted up and, worse yet, things they never said get attributed to them, so they refused to risk some editor messing all of this up.

A live on-air interview it was, then. Luckily, they still had connections in New York from their many TV appearances, so they were able to get in contact with Barbara Walters. Both Louis and Harry had loved her since they were on the “10 Most Fascinating People” show in 2012, and she adored them right back. She was thrilled to be able to do the interview, and she had everything necessary to make the interview live thanks to _The View_. They set the interview date for May 20, 2016, and picked out a private apartment to rent for the night; there were to be no screaming girls distracting them from the story they had to tell.

Louis and Harry both set countdowns on their phones as soon as the date was set. They were beyond eager to let everything out. By that point, they were well aware that they were the music industry’s worst-kept secret, but they longed to make it official. Five years of heartache and secrecy is a long time for anyone, let alone 22 and 24 year olds. They were both done with suffering in silence.

When May 20th finally arrived and they were sitting in the apartment with makeup and hair people prepping them to be on-camera, shock finally set in. For the longest time, they’d had no idea when this day would come, and there were several times when they thought it would never come, but here they were, getting ready to start a life not weighed down by orders to hide the biggest part of themselves.

Louis looked over at Harry as the stylist rubbed gel through his hair to get just the right quiff and the perfect amount of fringe, and he could see Harry’s whole body shaking beneath the hands of the young woman rubbing moisturizer through his uncontrollable curls. “Haz, breathe. Calm down, love,” he cooed. Louis reached out and grabbed his hand, knowing that physical touch was often the fastest way to pull Harry out of a panic. “It’s going to be okay. We’re ready for this.”

“I…I know,” he practically whispered. “I just, I just can’t believe it’s about to happen. Everything is about to change, and it’s scary.” Harry may have been much bigger than Louis physically, and he was the master at appearing confident in public, but sometimes, when it was just him and the boys, he seemed so…small. He was still the baby of the group in many ways, and Louis knew he wasn’t the only one looking out for him.

Louis grazed his fingers up and down Harry’s hand and wrist trying his best to soothe him until they could both get out of their chairs. “Listen, babe. It’s going to be okay. This is what we’ve been waiting for, and no matter what happens next, you know we’re going to face it together. I’m going to be right here. The fans are going to be right with us. It’s going to be okay.” He was doing his best to reassure his love, but he knew there wasn’t much he could say to help. They just had to get it over with already.

Harry turned to smile at him just as his makeup person started applying foundation to his face, but he still managed to mouth a “thank you” before turning his face back to the front. He held tight to Louis’ hand, though, and frankly, he didn’t plan on letting go of it until the whole thing was over.

“Ten minutes, everybody!” yelled one of the producers, and the makeup artists rushed to get their faces in proper color for the lighting and cameras.

When that was over and they were freed from their chairs, the first thing Louis did was grab Harry and pull him towards his chest. Harry may have had a few inches on him, but he often curled himself inward, as if to make himself appear smaller than he was, so his head easily collapsed onto Louis’ left shoulder. He was trying not to mess up the makeup, but Louis couldn’t have cared less. He just wanted to make sure Harry felt safe. After holding him for a good minute, he took a step back and placed his hands on Harry’s perfectly toned biceps. “You ready for this, sunshine?” he asked calmly, staring up into the bright green eyes of the guy he had loved since he was 18.

Harry leaned forward with his eyes closed and placed a gentle kiss right at the top of Louis’ forehead. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” He took Louis’ hand in his, and they headed over to the living room area where the interview would be taking place.

A white love seat and chair were angled towards each other enough that Barbara would be able to see both of them but they would all still be facing the camera. It would be a single camera interview; both of the boys wanted the focus to be on their words, emotions, and story the entire time. Louis instinctively took the spot closer to Barbara’s chair; he had gotten in the natural posture of protecting Harry a long time ago. His royal blue v-neck shirt and black skinny jeans popped against the bright white of the seat, and he stuck with black Converse sneakers to match. Their style was going to be who they really were; they weren’t going to dress up when the whole point of what they were doing was to show people the truth. Harry was wearing a dark green and burgundy floral top partially unbuttoned, denim blue skinny jeans, and black boots. The difference between his style then and when they first started out could not have been bigger; he went from desperately trying to dress like “the cool kids” to owning his style no matter what anyone said.

“Louis, Harry, it’s nice to see you,” Barbara said with a slight smile on her face. After a short pause, she asked, “Do you know how you’re going to approach this?” She knew what the interview was about; they told her when they set it up, and she told them she had had a feeling about it since their Most Fascinating People segment.

“Not really, no,” Harry admitted. “Just going to tell it straight out best we can.”

Louis squeezed his hand a little tighter then looked at Barbara. “This isn’t something you can plan out to the letter. We’re just going to try to stay calm and tell our story. Good thing you’re here.”

“Just look at me. It’ll be fine,” she assured them. Harry couldn’t help but think about how much kinder Barbara was in person than the stiff elderly woman that came across on TV before he met her.

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes as both of the boys tried to will their heartbeats to slow back down. Louis never once took his eyes off of Harry and continued to gently stroke his arm. He knew that no matter how hard this was for him, it was infinitely harder for the sensitive and vulnerable boy next to him. This is why Louis almost always handled the questions about their relationship; they both knew that Harry couldn’t bring himself to try to deny it. He was a terrible liar, so his deception would certainly come through in his words, and it would crush him if he had to face people coming at him. His facade of the strong, confident pop star would crumble like an avalanche if he had to even try to pretend that he didn’t love Louis, that his whole world didn’t orbit around him and his stunning blue eyes.

“Sixty seconds,” said the producer as he stepped briefly on the scene, bringing them out of their haze.

Harry finally turned toward Louis and bit his lip gently, looking for the solace he knew only Louis could give him. Louis pulled him over just enough to kiss him softly on his cheek. Something about his lips touching Harry’s skin made all of Harry’s muscles instantly relax. Louis rested his nose against his cheek and promised him, “We’ve got this,” before kissing him quickly once more. Then, they both sat back up straight, knowing that the cameras would start rolling at any second.

Gently squeezing Louis’ thigh, Harry sighed and said, “Here we go,” and that was all he had time to say before the producer stepped back into view.

“Five, four,” then the hand motions for three-two-one and a sharp point towards the set. It was go time.

“Hello, and welcome to a special live edition of _20/20_ ,” Barbara announced to the camera. “Tonight, I’m here with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, best known as one-half of the world phenomenon One Direction, but tonight, they’re just two young men here to tell their story, a story they say they’ve been waiting to tell since the beginning.” She turned back toward the boys. “Louis, Harry, welcome and thank you for coming tonight.”

“Thank you for having us,” they replied simultaneously.

“I understand you have something you would like to share with everyone.” They knew she had to pretend she didn’t know what was coming, for storytelling purposes.

Louis snuck a quick glance over at Harry, who seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. He touched his arm, and that pulled Harry out of his daze and back to the interview. Louis knew he had to start it off; otherwise, Harry might never speak. “Yeah, well, what we have to say is something most of our fans have been speculating about for years. We wanted to come here tonight and set the record straight.” He locked eyes with Harry, whose eyes were as wide open as Louis had ever seen them, willing Louis to get the most important part out so that he didn’t have to. “I’m just going to get right to the point. Harry and I,” he paused to squeeze Harry’s hand again as they both turned their gaze towards Barbara, “we’ve been in a relationship for…almost five years now.” There, the words that had been ricocheting around his head for so long were finally out.

“You’re dating?”

“Yes,” Louis confirmed. “We have been officially in a relationship since the summer of 2011, but to be honest, we were both attracted to each other since we met at the beginning of _The X Factor_.”

Barbara nodded. “Does this mean you are gay? Or bisexual?”

“I am gay, yes,” Louis said as he looked towards Harry. Harry needed to say the words; it wasn’t fair for Louis or anyone else to do it for him. Thankfully, now that the interview had started, Harry seemed to be getting back to the part of himself that thrived on camera.

“And I,” Harry paused to clear his throat, “I identify as bisexual.”

“Harry, for years, you were known in the media as the womanizer of One Direction, constantly going from one girl to the next. What does this mean for the many high-profile relationships that were documented throughout the past five years?” Barbara asked.

Harry knew this would have to be addressed, but that didn’t mean he liked it. “Well, to be honest, that was never a proper image of me. I’ve never been the womanizer type, even before I met Louis. And most of those… _relationships_ ,” his hesitation in calling them that was evident, “were things I had no say over. There’s a big issue in this industry of dates set up solely for PR, and that’s how I got into ‘dating’ most of the girls people think I have. I cared for all of the girls involved, but they were honestly nothing more than friends. And not even all of them were PR relationships; some of them really were just my friends. That’s the thing with the media; you spend a decent amount of time with someone of the opposite sex, and you must be dating them. If you took out all of the girls that were forced into it for PR like I was and were just my friends, I wouldn’t seem nearly as much of a womanizer as people think.”

Barbara nodded again before turning her attention towards Louis. “And Louis, you were the one in the long-term relationship. Eleanor Calder, correct? You were said to be dating for more than three years.”

Louis sighed and dropped his head. He leaned forward a bit, letting go of Harry’s hand and clasping his together. Finally, he looked at Barbara and sat back, reconnecting his grasp with Harry. “Listen, I’m not here to say anything negative about Eleanor. She is a lovely girl, and I really did grow to care for her…but she was a decoy. Management brought her in because they knew the rumors about me and Haz were picking up, and they tied me into the relationship using the ‘appearance’ clause in my contract. After the first little while when I had to get used to my new role, there was never anything negative between us. We were friends, we knew what we had to do under our contracts, and we knew how to work together, but she knew about my relationship with Harry from the start. I didn’t know why she agreed to it in the first place, and if you ask her, she’ll tell you that she wanted out of it long before we finally ‘broke up.’”

Barbara tilted her head a little bit, as if she was trying to make sure she understood everything. “It sounds to me like your management forced a lot on both of you,” she posited.

Harry agreed, “Yeah, they did. But it wasn’t just us. They’ve done it to Liam, Niall, and Zayn, too, when he was still part of the band. The idea that Liam was a homophobe was an even bigger laugh than them trying to keep Lou and me apart.”

“They punished Zayn every time he spoke about being Muslim or Pakistani, even on his Twitter account,” Louis added.

“And Niall was made out to be this innocent goofball who wasn’t ever focused on the work. He is happy-go-lucky, but he spent hours upon hours practicing his guitar after we finished singing rehearsals because he wanted to be better. He could work harder than any of us when he needed to. And while he didn’t draw the negative press that the rest of us did, he certainly wasn’t as innocent as a lot of people thought. They pushed him into the background, but he was no different from the rest of us,” finished Harry.

Louis nodded. “We were very grateful to Modest in the beginning because they helped us start off and provided a lot of guidance for five young lads who had no clue what they were doing, but once they realized how profitable we were as a business, we stopped being people to them, or even clients, and became a machine that they could work. They made the choices that they thought would be best for business, even if it tore us apart or destroyed the images of who we were to the fans.”

“I see.” Barbara turned toward the camera again. “Well, with that, we’re going to have to take our first break. Stay tuned as we continue this live interview with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson,” she said, leading into the first set of commercials.

“We’re out!” yelled a producer.

“So boys, how are you doing?” she asked. In many ways, she was very much a grandmotherly figure, despite being the epitome of professionalism.

Louis sighed heavily. “Uh…well, this certainly feels good to get out.”

“But it’s overwhelming,” added Harry.

“Yeah, exactly,” Louis agreed. “It’s hard to believe we’re actually getting to do this and step out of the shadows.”

Barbara assured them, “This is going very well. Just stay calm, and keep being yourselves.”

They sat there for a minute, just trying to gather their bearings and keep breathing slowly, and before they knew it, the producer was counting them back into the next segment.

“Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I’m here live with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson of One Direction, who have come forward to tell all of their fans that they are in a romantic relationship. Harry, Louis, tell us more about what it was like when you were out of the public’s eye. Were you allowed to be together in private?” she asked.

The boys looked at each other briefly before taking deep breaths. Louis, as usual, spoke up first, trying to take at least some of the pressure off of Harry. He responded, “Yes, we were. Modest had control over our public lives and images, but they didn’t even bother trying to control us in private. And really, everyone on our team was incredibly supportive. We’ve been blessed with having mostly the same crew working with us from the beginning, so once we were out and honest with them about what was going on, after the initial shock wore off, our tour manager, our trainers, our hair and makeup ladies, everyone was still very professional but also very much our tour family. It all worked out fine, so we were thankful to have some time to be ourselves and away from the images we were forced to uphold in public.”

“And how did the other boys respond?”

This question was the first time Harry really smiled. “They were great,” he said. “We wouldn’t have made it through the whole mess without them. When we slipped up in interviews, they did what they could to cover us to try to keep our handlers from seeing or realizing it.”

Barbara inquired, “What do you mean by ‘slipped up’?”

Harry continued, “Oh, you know, touching each other a little too much, saying things that might be construed as ruining the ‘straight’ image we had to have, things like that.” Louis smirked a bit. “What, Lou?”

“I was just thinking that my favorite thing about the lads handling all of this was that they would kind of join in on pissing off the management. They’d make offhand comments outing us. They’d crack jokes about beards. When one of us would make inappropriate comments or jokes about me and Haz, they exaggerated their responses knowing that the fans would pick up on it,” he explained.

Harry nodded and added, “The thing we love most about them, though, is the way they supported us against the management and their rules throughout the whole thing. There were many arguments that they got in the middle of just because they were tired of seeing us being yelled at. They became even more protective than usual when the closeting got really bad. They took care of both of us when the PR relationships we were in got a little too much to bear. They were just…there. Lou and I both knew that, as hard as all of this was, we had brothers with us through it.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing, you know. The five of us, we knew how to close ranks. We all helped each other through everything, no matter what it was,” Louis agreed.

“Was there anything else you did to tell the fans what you couldn’t say directly?” At this question, huge grins broke out on both of the boys’ faces.

“The bears,” they said together.

Barbara’s brows furrowed. “The bears?”

Harry went on to explain. “We had these two rainbow bears we would set up near the stage at nearly every show. Management couldn’t control the stage setup. But we didn’t want them to know exactly who was decorating it, so we got our tour crew to help us out. We would give them items to dress the bears in and put different pictures and objects around them. It was all very intentional to give messages to the fans. Pictures of gay icons, items that we knew they would relate back to our stories and personalities, wedding dresses, all sorts of things that shouted the truth about what we were hiding without actually saying a word.”

“So let me make sure I understand this,” Barbara replied. “You were so tied down by your management that you used _two stuffed bears_ to communicate to your own fans?”

“Yeah, exactly,” Harry said as he watched Louis run a hand through his hair.

“That’s terrible, but it’s also quite ingenious.” Pausing briefly to look down at her notes, she continued with, “What would you like to say regarding the multiple denials that have surfaced over the years? You, Louis, in particular, seemed to be the one most insistent that you and Harry weren’t involved as so many people said.”

Louis rolled his eyes, almost by reflex. “That wasn’t me. None of that was me. The Twitter posts? Management had access to all of our social media, whether they admit to it or not. The magazine quotes? Well, ma’am, I don’t think I need to explain to you the extent of what journalists can do to twist words or even create entire quotes, especially when they have certain people high in power threatening them with access to their clients, or even paying them to do what they want.”

“So, for example, the September 2012 tweet from your account saying that these rumors were the biggest load of…ahem…” Barbara knew she couldn’t curse on TV.

“Bullshit?” Louis filled it in for her. “Yeah, that was definitely management.”

Harry grinned shyly and interjected, “This led to another time we talked to the fans without actually talking to them. Later on, I posted a picture on Pinterest of a quote saying, ‘I really didn’t deserve all the bullshit you gave me,’ and the caption was simply the date that tweet was posted. The fans who believed we were together knew what it meant; we didn’t deserve the bullshit that the management was giving us.”

Louis went on, “And if you look at all of our videoed interviews, everything that’s on YouTube, you will notice, as our very astute fans did, that we never explicitly denied it out loud. I always handled the questions when they were asked because, let’s face it, Harry’s a terrible liar,” Harry broke in with a laugh, “and I was very careful with my words. I was raised to never lie to people, especially not the people that I love. We love our fans to pieces, so everything I said in interviews about it was worded in such a way that there was never a true denial. It was usually just an acknowledgment of the rumors, which was taken as a denial for the fans who didn’t believe in it, anyway.”

“You are quite clever, especially for young men who started out in this business at such a young age,” Barbara complimented them with a smile.

“Thank you,” they responded in unison once again.

“In the situation we were in, we kind of had to figure out how to be; otherwise, I think it would have crushed us both,” said Louis.

Barbara glanced off camera before announcing, “We’re going to take a break, but we will be right back to this interview. Please join us as we continue to hear more from Louis and Harry. This couple has much more to say.” Harry and Louis looked at each other with soft smiles. It was surreal to hear someone acknowledge them as a _couple_ out in public for everyone to hear.

The few minutes of that commercial break were spent with Louis simply holding Harry in his arms. They were at the halfway mark now, and he could see Harry getting tired, the nerves and stress getting the best of him. His Hazza always calmed down the fastest this way, and Louis would never stop wanting to have his arms wrapped around him. Harry rested with his eyes closed and his back tight up against Louis’ chest. Once again, they were in their own little world as the business and noise of the television crew bustled around them.

Breaking their peace, the producer was suddenly shouting the next countdown, so they rushed to sit up straight and prepare for the next segment.

Barbara brought them back in. “Welcome back to this evening’s live interview with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. Earlier tonight, they announced to the world that they have been in a relationship for several years and are here to tell the story they’ve been forced to keep quiet until now.” She then turned back toward the boys. “So, gentlemen, tell us more about what it was like having such a large part of your lives hidden for so long. You’ve said that Liam, Niall, and Zayn supported you through it. Were your families aware, and did they support it?”

Louis and Harry both nodded as they looked at each other. “Yeah, absolutely,” replied Louis. “We both told our mums very early on, while _The X Factor_ was still running on TV, that we knew we were interested in each other.”

Harry interjected with a little chuckle, “My mum told me that she could tell there was something special between us from the time that the lads came over to our house for a week when we first got put together as a group. Apparently, neither of us have ever been good at hiding it.”

“That was in 2010. You said you officially became a couple during the summer of 2011. When exactly was that, and what changed?” Barbara inquired.

“The Leeds Festival,” they both answered with smiles. Barbara raised her eyebrows, so they knew they needed to give more detail.

Harry took this one. “The Leeds Festival was the last weekend of August that year. We went with a group of friends, but we didn’t leave each other the entire time. I’m not sure we can explain what changed exactly. I guess we both just got tired of dancing around the idea when we knew the love we had was only getting stronger,” he explained.

“Yeah, exactly,” Louis agreed. “Getting to spend that weekend together as just ‘Louis and Harry’ and not ‘Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles from One Direction’ just sort of solidified everything. It made us realize what life could be like for us as a couple in the real world, outside of the spotlight.

Harry smiled at the thought of what the future held for them as a free couple. “But to answer your original question,” he reverted, “yes, our families have been brilliant about the whole thing. It took a little getting used to, I think, because this was the first non-heterosexual relationship for both of us, but once they wrapped their minds around the idea, everything was fine. Our mums have become best friends, and I think my parents and my sister Gemma like Lou more than they like me.”

Louis let out a full-blown laugh. “It’s true. It’s true. And as everyone knows, I have several younger sisters, and they completely adore Haz, mostly because they think he gives great hair advice. But with those curls, who can blame them?” He winked at Harry, and Harry jokingly rolled his eyes in return.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like your management were the only ones standing in your way and keeping you from coming out with this news?” Barbara posited.

Both of the boys nodded. Louis agreed, “Yeah, I mean, at first we were in agreement that we needed to hold it back, because we wanted to make sure the band could make it, and we didn’t want our personal lives to get in the way of the others lads’ careers. So we were fine with it at first, and there were no real issues between us and the team at Modest, at least not over this. Then, we started seeing what a loyal fanbase we had, and once the ‘Larry Stylinson’ rumors really picked up, we wanted to tell this publicly, but just like they did with the contracts with Eleanor and me, they trapped us with the appearance clause in our contracts and said that if we did, we would be breaching them and, basically, all hell would break loose.” He sighed deeply and dropped his head, gathering his composure before looking back up again.

When Louis looked down at his lap, Harry immediately started rubbing his leg in comfort. They were so in tune with each other that it was reflex at this point; neither one of them could see the other frustrated or upset in any way without doing something. He took over the conversation so that Louis could have a moment. “If it were up to us, we’d have been sitting here giving this interview three years ago…at least. We may have chosen to stay quiet at first, but we definitely didn’t want it to go on this long.”

“No, definitely not,” Louis added in agreement.

“What was it like for you, both individually and as a couple, over the years? Not having control of your actions, your images…tell us more about your feelings as you went through that,” Barbara said.

“Some times were worse than others,” Harry replied.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Modest was more domineering and insistent upon keeping us apart at certain times than they were others. I remember our Take Me Home tour was particularly rough. There was a period where they wouldn’t let us be photographed together in public.”

Louis also answered, “We weren’t allowed to sit next to each other at events for a time, and we had to ask permission from our handlers if we wanted to do so much as shake each other’s hand. But as time went on, they realized we really weren’t going to cave to them, and the speculation became more widespread, so they loosened the reins a bit. Mentally, though, it was never easy.”

“I think the only reason we got through all of it without going crazy or falling apart was the support we had from everyone else,” Harry said. “From the boys, who supported and defended us even when it made things hard for them, to our tour family, who never once made us feel like we had to be anything but ourselves, to our incredible, dedicated, passionate fans who made it clear just how much they love us.”

“Yeah, I agree,” answered Louis, squeezing Harry’s hand gently. “I think no matter who you are, no matter what you’re dealing with, when you’re going through something really difficult that is out of your control, your family, your friends, they’re gonna help you keep your head up and get through it. Everyone needs people that are on their side, so while we had to deal with a select few who were working against us and what we wanted, we were lucky to have a lot more people working _with_ us. We had a lot of people to turn to when the whole mess was too much to deal with on our own.”

Barbara smiled and nodded. “We have to take one more commercial break, but please join us for the end of this exclusive live interview with Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles as they continue to tell their story,” she said to the camera.

Once the producer said they were off-air, Louis’ head immediately dropped back against the couch as he let out a groan. This time, Harry was doing the comforting. “It’s almost over, love,” he said softly as he leaned into the boy he loved so fiercely. “It’s almost over.”

Louis nodded but still didn’t lift his head. “I know, I know. I’m just exhausted now. I want to be done with this. I don’t want to keep reliving the past five years of hell when we’re finally free from all of it,” he sighed. Harry had been resting his hand on Louis’ thigh, and Louis reached down and intertwined their fingers. “And I just keep thinking about the rest of the press that is going insane right now over this interview, and the paps that are going to harass us even more, and…”

“Hey!” Harry cut him off to keep him from going too far down that rabbit hole. He gently grabbed Louis’ chin and turned his face towards his. “You can’t think about that right now. Just think about finishing this interview. And you know that we’re doing the right thing, just like you know that no matter what happens next, we can deal with it together,” he assured him, planting a soft and sweet kiss on Louis’ lips.

Louis couldn’t help but smile when Harry kissed him. “You’re right,” he said, sitting back up straight because he knew the break would be over soon. “Thank you, love.” He kissed Harry right back, briefly resting their foreheads against one another.

They sat just holding hands peacefully as Louis repeatedly grazed his thumb across the back of Harry’s hand until the producer counted them back in for the final segment. They could see Barbara smiling sweetly at them until she spoke to the camera.

“Welcome back. We are here with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, who asked to do this live interview so they could share with their fans the love story they have not been able to share before now.” She adjusted herself in her chair a bit so that her focus was back on the boys. “Louis, Harry, what would you say was the hardest part about the past five years and having everything be kept hidden?”

Harry raised his eyebrows and said, “Well, none of it was easy.”

“Yeah, yeah, definitely not,” added Louis. “There were a lot of hard things about all of it, but for me, I’d say the hardest part was having to watch Harry be paraded around in all of these relationships.” He let go of Harry’s hand just long enough to put the air quotes around the last word. “Because not only did I know how miserable he was, it made me sick to know that we couldn’t do what people were forcing him to do with others, the dates, the public kisses, and just simple stuff like holding hands on the street. Plus, there was all the press that went crazy every time he showed up with a new girl, so it was like I couldn’t get away from it. All along, the lads and I, we had to play the supportive bandmates and brothers, but every time I had to hear about it or hear him get asked about it, I wanted to scream.” Harry stared at him despondently the entire time he spoke, and when he finished, Harry leaned down and kissed him on the shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, love,” he whispered.

“I know,” Louis replied, squeezing his hand.

Harry bit his lip and ran a hand through his curls that were beginning to itch a bit from all the product. “For me, the hardest things were the little things. Being told we couldn’t be photographed or do interviews alone together. Not being allowed to sit together at events. Having all our interactions watched and dictated, even onstage. It was things like that. Not only was I having to keep this massive, massive secret, it felt like my body wasn’t my own, because every move I made in public was being watched and directed,” he said.

“We became nothing but puppets to them, because their first priority was our image, because our image would lead to more money,” Louis went on. “They thought playing up a straight image was the best way to make profit, even if it hurt the people who got us to where we are. Some of our LGBT fans began thinking we really did hate them because of the things we were forced to say, or that it was claimed we said, about the rumors about us. And then with them making Liam out to be a homophobe, so many of our fans were hurt thinking they didn’t matter to us.” This time, he looked straight at the camera. “So I want to say that I am so, so sorry, we both are.” He glanced briefly back at Harry, who joined him in looking at the camera. “We are so sorry to all of you who have been hurt by all of this. Know that we love every single one of you, just as you are, no matter who you are, and we are grateful for all the ways that each one of you has supported us over the years.”

“And from now on,” said Harry, “there’s going to be no more hiding, no more lies. One Direction is about love, all love, and we want you to know that we love you and will support you in any way that we can, even if it means just giving you a fandom where you can be yourselves. We know that there are so many of you out there who have said we have made you strong, and I hope you know how strong you have made Lou and me over the years, too. Seeing so many of you bring signs of support to concerts or post messages of support on Twitter and Tumblr helped us stay strong no matter how hard this got. Thank you. THANK YOU.”

As they sat back on the couch and looked at Barbara, they both noticed she had a smile and a twinkle in her eye like that of a proud grandmother. “What made you want to do this interview here, now, and live?” she asked.

Louis scratched along his jawline and nodded his head twice before speaking. “Well, you know, we just got out of our contract back in March, which meant we were finally _free_ to talk about this without threats from management and the like. Haz and I have been waiting to be out about us, so once we knew we could, we started figuring out how to do it pretty much right away. It took us a couple of months to get it all sorted out, but now, well, here we are,” he explained with a smirk.

“We like you, and we trust you,” said Harry.

“And we knew that we had to do a TV interview. There have been too many print interviews over the years that have either twisted our words or completely fabricated quotes, so there was no way we were going to risk letting that happen with this. Doing it live, well, just seemed better because it also wouldn’t be going through any editing,” Louis finished.

“I see. Now that your story is finally out, what is next?”

At this question, Harry and Louis looked at each other with matching awkward looks, like they weren’t sure how to answer this.

“Well, we’re finally getting a break after almost six years of work since _The X Factor_ started. In fact, our auditions were around this time back in 2010,” started Harry. “So we’ll be taking a bit of a holiday.”

“Yeah, exactly,” said Louis. “We know there’s going to be a lot of questions about this, and probably more requests for interviews, but this is the only major interview we’ll be doing, so it’ll have to suffice. All four of us have a trip planned in a fortnight to get away.”

“After that, who knows?” posited Harry. “We already have a new record deal in the works with different people, but we’re giving ourselves a break until next spring to act like normal lads for a change, so until we come back, I just plan on catching up on sleep and living life with Lou.” His smile was so wide his signature dimples looked like they could take up his whole cheeks.

Louis chuckled and nodded. “For the first time since this whole crazy ride started, we have no idea what’s coming next, and frankly, that’s a relief.”

Barbara glanced quickly over to the producer on the sideline and said, “We are almost out of time. Are there any final thoughts that you would like to say?”

“Um, well, to our fans, I just want to say that I hope they know we are still the same crazy idiots we have been from the beginning, so I hope they’ll stick by us through this next chapter of the band. We’ll stick around as long as they’ll have us,” replied Harry.

Louis responded, “To the fans who are surprised by this, that it’s okay if they’re shocked. I think I’d be shocked, too, to see an interview like this. But I hope this won’t change their perception of us because, like Harry said, we’re still the same lads we were when we started. We’re just open now. And to the ones who knew this was coming, to the ‘Larries,’ thank you for believing in Harry and me even when it was rough, and thank you for seeing and understanding what we couldn’t say clearly to you.”

Harry jumped in one more time. “We love all of our fans as much as ever. They’ve given us the world. I know Liam and Niall are with us when we say that we want to keep giving back to them. We just need a little rest first, but when we come back, we’ll keep bringing the best music and the best shows we know how to make.”

Barbara nodded. “Thank you for coming tonight, gentlemen. It was an honor to hear you speak.” Harry and Louis both smiled and nodded, and to the camera, Barbara said, “We hope you enjoyed this exclusive live interview with Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson as they shared their story. Come back next Friday for a new episode of _20/20_. I’m Barbara Walters. Good night.”

The three held their smiles and poses for a few seconds until the producer shouted, “And we’re out!”

At the sound of those three words, the boys immediately let out huge sighs of relief. “It’s over,” said Louis, partially out of happiness, and partially trying to make the shock of it all wear off.

Harry stood up, helped Louis up from the love seat, and pulled him into a kiss. Leaning against his love’s forehead, he smiled and said, “Now the real fun begins. We don’t have to hide anymore.” Louis nodded. Together, they walked to the edge of the set. “Everyone!” Harry shouted to get the whole crew’s attention. “We just want to say a massive thank you to all of you who helped us pull this off tonight. To Ms. Walters, thank you for agreeing to do the interview. To the producers and camera crew, thank you for making it run smoothly. To the hair, makeup, and wardrobe crew, thank you for being here and putting in the time to get us ready. Thank you to all of you!” Harry began walking around the room shaking everyone’s hands, as he was raised to do, and Louis was right behind him doing the same. Watching the way Harry exuded appreciation for every single person he met and worked with come to life had inspired Louis to more actively show his gratitude, as well. Once their thank-yous were taken care of, they went and changed out of their interview clothes into what they were wearing when they arrived, washed the makeup off their faces, and Harry threw his hair up in a bun to cool himself off.

Every time they looked at each other, they couldn’t help but grin. They’d waited to tell the world the truth for so long, and now it was out. They could finally be themselves without a bunch of executives breathing down their necks. Surviving years of that helped them remember that they could deal with whatever press and paparazzi would be hounding them over this news in the days and weeks to come. They knew they could handle that, because before too long, the press would find a new celebrity and a new story to obsess over in their magazines.

Harry and Louis were well aware that the New York press would be stalking the building out front by the time the interview was over, because even in a city that large, it wasn’t all that hard to track them down. That’s why they did it in an apartment building with a private garage. They asked their old tour manager, Paul, who had organized so many getaways for the boys over the years, to get a van with tinted windows down in the garage ready to help them escape and get out of the city. They stood by the front door of the apartment with their security, waiting for notification from Paul that the van was in place.

“Yeah?” Preston, Louis’ longtime bodyguard, pulled a ringing cell phone out of his pocket. “Alright, we’ll head down now.” He hung up the phone and said to the boys, “The van’s ready. Let’s get out of here.” Preston and Dale, Harry’s security, stood back to let Louis and Harry out the door first.

As they headed down the hallway to the elevator, the boys, usually two exuberant goofballs, could barely say a word. They simply walked hand-in-hand, each one leaning over to give the other a peck every so often. They were smiling like two kids let loose in a candy shop the entire way down to the garage, and Preston and Dale were grinning behind them, like two protective big brothers thrilled to see their little brothers finally be themselves without shame or fear.

Arriving down in the garage, they immediately saw the van waiting with the engine running, and Paul was leaned up against its trunk. Seeing them, he stood up and opened his arms to give his “sons” hugs. He, too, had seen just how difficult the years had been for Louis and Harry, and as their tour dad, his heart was bursting with pride and excitement for his boys on this night. “Alright, let’s go. We’ve got some celebrating to do!” he exclaimed.

Paul got in the passenger’s seat next to the driver, Preston and Dale sat in the middle two bucket seats, and Harry and Louis climbed in the back so they could stretch out together. Now that the night was over, they didn’t want to let go of each other, even for a second. They were headed to The Hamptons. As celebrity-cliché as it was, they knew they could get some privacy holed up in a house there for a few days. Liam and Niall were joining them there the next day, and their only plans were to just be with some of the people who had supported them all the way through their journey.

Louis was stretched out on the back seat, with his arms wrapped tightly around Harry who was sideways on top of him laying between his legs, and as the van sped up to pull out of the underground garage, his angel looked up at him sweetly. Harry’s green eyes looked like they were exploding with fireworks as he said, “Lou?”

“Hmm?”

Then, Harry declared three simple words that made reality sink in for the both of them.

“We’re finally free.”


End file.
